Maui culturally bonds with Cambodia at inaugural Angkor Wat International Film Festival
March 4, 2012
By RICK CHATENEVER -
Features Editor (scene@mauinews.com) ,
The Maui News
Emmy Award-winning Maui filmmaker Tom Vendetti added to the expanding universe of international film festivals two weeks ago, producing and directing the inaugural Angkor Wat International Film Festival in the exotic, faraway land of Cambodia.
With free screenings of 32 theatrical, documentary and short films in the elegant, French-accented Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf and Spa Resort, Vendetti and a contingent heavy with Maui residents also forged new links between the cultures of Hawaii and Southeast Asia.
"The festival's mission is to show films about the preservation of culture and the environment," Vendetti said in an interview during the three days of free screenings, Feb. 17 to 19.
Hundreds of film fans and curiosity seekers paid visits to the resort venue in the quaint French Colonial city. It had converted two ballrooms into theaters since Siem Reap doesn't boast an actual theater of its own.
The festival's namesake and inspiration was the gigantic Angkor complex of Hindu and Buddhist temples dating back more than 1,000 years, located just outside of Siem Reap. Covering thousands of acres, comparable to a small city in a verdant jungle, it is the largest religious architectural creation on the planet, acknowledged as a world heritage center.
Vendetti, a clinical psychologist and mental-health administrator on Maui as well as a veteran filmmaker, first became involved with Cambodia in 2003 when treating a patient for severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder at Maui Kokua Services. The patient, Sam Khong, was a native Cambodian who had left
his homeland at age 17 and had been prevented by military and political upheavals in his homeland from returning for 30 years.
It was determined that the best therapy for him would be to return him to his home and reunite him with his family if they could be located, an odyssey chronicled in Vendetti's film "Years of Darkness." It was one of many films at the festival linking Maui with exotic but war-torn Cambodia.
The experience with Sam Khong put Vendetti in touch with Bernie Krisher, an American journalist and former Newsweek Tokyo bureau chief who had gone on to create the Cambodia Daily newspaper and build hundreds of schools across the country.
Under Krisher's guidance, Vendetti's party built a school in Khong's remote home village. Krisher was also the one who suggested a Cambodian film festival to Vendetti.
A documentary honoring Krisher was part of the festival bill, which included selections from Iceland, North Korea, Africa, Fiji, China, Tibet and Nepal.
Along with other Vendetti productions including the Emmy-winning "Bhutan: Taking the Middle Path to Happiness" and his most recent "When the Mountain Calls: Nepal Tibet Bhutan," the Hawaii-based screenings included the documentary "Taylor Camp," directed by Maui's Robert C. Stone; the rollicking made-on-Maui comedy "Get a Job," written and directed by Brian Kohne; "That First Glide," about stand-up paddling, directed by Mauian Mike Waltze; and "Soul Surfer," Hollywood's retelling of the true story of Kauai surfer Bethany Hamilton. "American Winter," a short film by Maui high school student filmmakers Jessica Green and Lee Ah Lee, was also on the bill.
Stone, a frequent collaborator on Vendetti's projects, was the technical coordinator for the festival. The Maui contingent also included Vendetti's wife, Nancy, and still photographer Scott Dewar, who have also been contributors to several films on the bill.
This journalist was also part of the Maui team by virtue of having written the script for "When the Mountain Calls" and serving as an adviser during planning for the inaugural festival.
One of the challenges of mounting the festival was overcoming the image of the country best known around the world, ironically enough, from a movie.
"The Killing Fields," a triple Oscar winner in 1984, told of the atrocities committed in the country during the 1970s, in which Khmer Rouge soldiers - many of them illiterate teenagers recruited from the countryside by the regime of tyrannical dictator Pol Pot -slaughtered more than 2 million of their countrymen deemed to be "undesirable" because they were educated, or wore glasses or "had soft hands." Tens of thousands of women, teenagers and children were among their victims.
Instead, Vendetti turned to the monumental, mysterious Angkor Wat and surrounding edifices for inspiration. Centuries-old tree roots intertwine with intricately carved stone temples dating back to the 1100s, producing a unique blend of mystery, spirituality and adventure. Its temples had provided locations for Angelina Jolie's 2001 action-adventure, "Lara Croft Tomb Raider."
Vendetti heard powerful spiritual echoes in the enormous World Heritage Site. Full of countless religious statues and carvings honoring both Buddhist and Hindu deities, its temples seem never-ending, their walls covered with epic carvings depicting monumental figures and events spanning millennia in the histories of the two religions.
"The connection first occurred to me when I was walking through the temples of Angkor," Vendetti said. "It was as though the temples were talking to me. All that I knew before about Cambodia was 'The Killing Fields.' "
This horrific chapter in Cambodia's history wasn't overlooked by films in the festival. But Vendetti's mission was to move forward in a more constructive way, guided by a recurrent theme in several of his films - ways of achieving happiness.
Film provided a two-way communication link between Cambodia and the rest of the world, and governmental and cultural officials were in attendance at both its glitzy opening reception and its gala finale.
Sofitel resort manager Fabrice Ducry expressed "the pleasure of hosting an international film festival," in a land where movies are a form of consciousness raising. "It's exactly what we preach and want to be involved in," he said.
"When I was talking to governmental officials about developing the festival, their message was they didn't want to talk about 'The Killing Fields,' " Vendetti recalled.
Driving the length of Cambodia, from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, passing the simple pole houses where people live as they have for centuries, he realized, "We needed to get the message out about preserving the environment, about the consequences of pollution, consumerism and greed.
"Indigenous cultures are being wiped out all over the world," he concluded. "But there's so much wisdom to be found in these cultures about preserving the environment."
Not only is it essential if we are to preserve the planet - "It's a key element in promoting happiness," he said.
* Rick Chatenever can be reached at scene@mauinews.com.
March 4, 2012
By RICK CHATENEVER -
Features Editor (scene@mauinews.com) ,
The Maui News
Emmy Award-winning Maui filmmaker Tom Vendetti added to the expanding universe of international film festivals two weeks ago, producing and directing the inaugural Angkor Wat International Film Festival in the exotic, faraway land of Cambodia.
With free screenings of 32 theatrical, documentary and short films in the elegant, French-accented Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf and Spa Resort, Vendetti and a contingent heavy with Maui residents also forged new links between the cultures of Hawaii and Southeast Asia.
"The festival's mission is to show films about the preservation of culture and the environment," Vendetti said in an interview during the three days of free screenings, Feb. 17 to 19.
Hundreds of film fans and curiosity seekers paid visits to the resort venue in the quaint French Colonial city. It had converted two ballrooms into theaters since Siem Reap doesn't boast an actual theater of its own.
The festival's namesake and inspiration was the gigantic Angkor complex of Hindu and Buddhist temples dating back more than 1,000 years, located just outside of Siem Reap. Covering thousands of acres, comparable to a small city in a verdant jungle, it is the largest religious architectural creation on the planet, acknowledged as a world heritage center.
Vendetti, a clinical psychologist and mental-health administrator on Maui as well as a veteran filmmaker, first became involved with Cambodia in 2003 when treating a patient for severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder at Maui Kokua Services. The patient, Sam Khong, was a native Cambodian who had left
his homeland at age 17 and had been prevented by military and political upheavals in his homeland from returning for 30 years.
It was determined that the best therapy for him would be to return him to his home and reunite him with his family if they could be located, an odyssey chronicled in Vendetti's film "Years of Darkness." It was one of many films at the festival linking Maui with exotic but war-torn Cambodia.
The experience with Sam Khong put Vendetti in touch with Bernie Krisher, an American journalist and former Newsweek Tokyo bureau chief who had gone on to create the Cambodia Daily newspaper and build hundreds of schools across the country.
Under Krisher's guidance, Vendetti's party built a school in Khong's remote home village. Krisher was also the one who suggested a Cambodian film festival to Vendetti.
A documentary honoring Krisher was part of the festival bill, which included selections from Iceland, North Korea, Africa, Fiji, China, Tibet and Nepal.
Along with other Vendetti productions including the Emmy-winning "Bhutan: Taking the Middle Path to Happiness" and his most recent "When the Mountain Calls: Nepal Tibet Bhutan," the Hawaii-based screenings included the documentary "Taylor Camp," directed by Maui's Robert C. Stone; the rollicking made-on-Maui comedy "Get a Job," written and directed by Brian Kohne; "That First Glide," about stand-up paddling, directed by Mauian Mike Waltze; and "Soul Surfer," Hollywood's retelling of the true story of Kauai surfer Bethany Hamilton. "American Winter," a short film by Maui high school student filmmakers Jessica Green and Lee Ah Lee, was also on the bill.
Stone, a frequent collaborator on Vendetti's projects, was the technical coordinator for the festival. The Maui contingent also included Vendetti's wife, Nancy, and still photographer Scott Dewar, who have also been contributors to several films on the bill.
This journalist was also part of the Maui team by virtue of having written the script for "When the Mountain Calls" and serving as an adviser during planning for the inaugural festival.
One of the challenges of mounting the festival was overcoming the image of the country best known around the world, ironically enough, from a movie.
"The Killing Fields," a triple Oscar winner in 1984, told of the atrocities committed in the country during the 1970s, in which Khmer Rouge soldiers - many of them illiterate teenagers recruited from the countryside by the regime of tyrannical dictator Pol Pot -slaughtered more than 2 million of their countrymen deemed to be "undesirable" because they were educated, or wore glasses or "had soft hands." Tens of thousands of women, teenagers and children were among their victims.
Instead, Vendetti turned to the monumental, mysterious Angkor Wat and surrounding edifices for inspiration. Centuries-old tree roots intertwine with intricately carved stone temples dating back to the 1100s, producing a unique blend of mystery, spirituality and adventure. Its temples had provided locations for Angelina Jolie's 2001 action-adventure, "Lara Croft Tomb Raider."
Vendetti heard powerful spiritual echoes in the enormous World Heritage Site. Full of countless religious statues and carvings honoring both Buddhist and Hindu deities, its temples seem never-ending, their walls covered with epic carvings depicting monumental figures and events spanning millennia in the histories of the two religions.
"The connection first occurred to me when I was walking through the temples of Angkor," Vendetti said. "It was as though the temples were talking to me. All that I knew before about Cambodia was 'The Killing Fields.' "
This horrific chapter in Cambodia's history wasn't overlooked by films in the festival. But Vendetti's mission was to move forward in a more constructive way, guided by a recurrent theme in several of his films - ways of achieving happiness.
Film provided a two-way communication link between Cambodia and the rest of the world, and governmental and cultural officials were in attendance at both its glitzy opening reception and its gala finale.
Sofitel resort manager Fabrice Ducry expressed "the pleasure of hosting an international film festival," in a land where movies are a form of consciousness raising. "It's exactly what we preach and want to be involved in," he said.
"When I was talking to governmental officials about developing the festival, their message was they didn't want to talk about 'The Killing Fields,' " Vendetti recalled.
Driving the length of Cambodia, from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, passing the simple pole houses where people live as they have for centuries, he realized, "We needed to get the message out about preserving the environment, about the consequences of pollution, consumerism and greed.
"Indigenous cultures are being wiped out all over the world," he concluded. "But there's so much wisdom to be found in these cultures about preserving the environment."
Not only is it essential if we are to preserve the planet - "It's a key element in promoting happiness," he said.
* Rick Chatenever can be reached at scene@mauinews.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment